PLATE XXVIII.William Finley,—is alternately snail-picker, leech-bather, and viper-catcher.
PLATE XXVIII.William Finley,—is alternately snail-picker, leech-bather, and viper-catcher.
PLATE XXVIII.
William Finley,—is alternately snail-picker, leech-bather, and viper-catcher.
The man whose portrait is given in the succeeding plate, mimics the notes of the common English birds by means of a folded bit of tin, similar to that used by Mr Punch's orator, and which is held between the teeth; but in order to engage the attention of the credulous, he pretends, as his lips are nearly closed, to draw his tones from two tobacco-pipes, using one for the fiddle, the other for the bow, and never fails to collect an attentive audience, either in the street or tap-room.
PLATE XXIX.Street musician, who mimics the notes of the common English birds by means of a folded bit of tin, which is held between the teeth; but in order to engage the attention of the credulous, he pretends to draw his tones from two tobacco pipes.
PLATE XXIX.Street musician, who mimics the notes of the common English birds by means of a folded bit of tin, which is held between the teeth; but in order to engage the attention of the credulous, he pretends to draw his tones from two tobacco pipes.
PLATE XXIX.
Street musician, who mimics the notes of the common English birds by means of a folded bit of tin, which is held between the teeth; but in order to engage the attention of the credulous, he pretends to draw his tones from two tobacco pipes.
Musicians of this description were at one time very numerous. Gravelot, when he kept a drawing-school in the Strand, made sketches of several. One particularly picturesque, was of a blind chaunter of the old ballads of "There was a wealthy Lawyer," or "O Brave Nell," and has been admirably etched by Miller. This man accompanied his voice by playing upon a catgut string drawn over a bladder, and tied at both ends of a mop-stick; but the boys continuallyperplexing him by pricking his bladder, and a pampered prodigal having with a sword let out all his wind, he fortunately hit upon a mode of equally charming the ear by substituting a tin tea-canister.
PLATE XXX.A blind chaunter of the old ballads, who accompanied his voice by playing upon a catgut string drawn over a tea canister, and tied at both ends of a mop stick.
PLATE XXX.A blind chaunter of the old ballads, who accompanied his voice by playing upon a catgut string drawn over a tea canister, and tied at both ends of a mop stick.
PLATE XXX.
A blind chaunter of the old ballads, who accompanied his voice by playing upon a catgut string drawn over a tea canister, and tied at both ends of a mop stick.
Thomas King, a most excellent painter of conversation-scenes, who lived at the time of Hogarth, and assisted him in his large pictures of Paul before Felix in Lincoln's Inn Hall, and the Good Samaritan in Bartholomew's Hospital, has left portraits of several of these singular beings,—such as Maddox, the balancer of a straw; but particularly that of Matthew Skeggs, who played a concerto upon a broomstick, in the character of Signor Bumbasto, at the little theatre in the Haymarket. These portraits have been engraved by Houston. That of Skeggs was published by himself, at the sign of the Hoop and Bunch of Grapes, in St Alban's Street, now a part of Waterloo Place. Since their time, Mr Meadows, the comedian, has been particularly famous for his imitations of birds; and some of the lowest description of street vagabonds have produced tones by playing upon their chins with their knuckles. Another hero of the knuckle, was the famous Buckhorse, the friend of Ned Shuter, and who formerly sold sticks in Covent Garden. This fellow grew so callous to the blow of the knuckle, as to place his head firmly against a wall, and suffer, for a shilling, any wretch to strike him with his doubled fist, with all his strength, in his face, which became at last more like a Good-Friday bun than any thing human. Of this man there are many portraits.
Of Scottish, Welsh, and Irish mendicants there are now very few in London; perhaps their full number does not exceed fifty, unless by including that lower order of street-musicians who so frequently distract the harmonious ear with their droning bag-pipes, screaming clarionets, and crazy harps. These people, with match, tooth-pick, and cotton-ball venders, may be considered but as one remove from beggary.
The lowest class of the Scotch are bakers' men; the women are laundresses. The Welshmen, of whom London never had many, are principally employed by the potters of Lambeth, at which place they have an old established house of worship. It is a cheerful sight to behold their women, who are remarkable for their cleanliness, and, like the Scotch, are generally pictures of vigorous health. These will go in trains of twenty or thirty persons, from Hammersmith to Covent Garden Market, joining in one national melody, and perfuming the air with their baskets of ripe strawberries.
Of all people the poor Irish are the most anxious to gain employment, and are truly valuable examples of industry. They sleep less than other labourers; for at the dawn of day they assemble in flocks at their usual stands for hire,—namely, Whitechapel, Queen Street, Cheapside, and on the spot formerly occupied by St Giles's pound, at the ends of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. The most laborious of them are chairmen, paviers, bricklayers' labourers, potato-gatherers, and basket-men; and, to the eternal disgrace of the commonalty of the English, these people, as well as the Scotch and Welsh, are guilty of very few excesses, particularly in that odious practice of drinking, a vice so much increased by the accommodation of seats in gin-shops, which are the first opened and last shut in London.
The Irish carry immense loads. A hod of bricks, weighing one hundred and ten pounds, is carried one hundred and twenty times at least in the course of the day, and sometimes up a ladder of the height of five stories, and all for two shillings and ninepence per day. The pavier's rammer, of more than half a hundred weight, is raised not fewer than two thousand times in the course of the day.What Englishman could do this?With respect to loads on the head, the Irish surpass all others. Leary makes nothing of carrying two hundred weight from the Fox under the Hill, near the Adelphi, to Covent Garden, many times on a market morning; and yet, extraordinary as this may appear, his feats have been more than equalled by a female. A man of the name of Eglesfield,who has sold flowers in Covent Garden for the last thirty-six years, knew an Irish girl who would often walk under the weight of two hundred pounds. He declares that she brought a load of one hundred and a half from Newgate Market to Covent Garden on her head, without once pitching, though it must be observed that this was not potato-weight, which has always one hundred and twenty-six pounds to the hundred.
The following woodcut represents the humane manner in which cripples are conveyed from door to door in many parts of Ireland. The following description has been kindly furnished to the Author by a friend, who has frequently assisted in the conveyance, and takes no ordinary interest in the condition of the poor.
In the country parts of Ireland, beggars are treated with great tenderness and pious hospitality. Many of them are recognised as descended from ancient and powerful septs, which decayed in the revolutions of property and influence. During many years after the invasion of King Henry, the houses of hospitality (so amply described in Sir John Davis's Tracts) which were established by the Chiefs for their poor relations and the traveller, were still kept open; and to this hour, some gentry and farmers provide the itinerant beggars with a bed as well as food. The alms are generally given in meal, flax, wool, milk, or potatoes, but seldom in money, except in cities or towns. After receiving a night's lodging or alms, long and devout prayers are distinctly uttered at the door of the benefactor. Like the players in Hamlet, they are the brief chronicles of the times, and their praises of the good frequently contribute to matrimonial connections. In some parts of the country the beggars have a particular day in the week for appearing abroad, when they are plentifully supplied for the remaining six; and those who, from loss of limbs, or other infirmity, are unable to walk, are seated upon barrows, and carried or wheeled from door to door, by the servants of each house or the casual passenger, an act of piety whichis not unfrequently performed by members of respectable families. The beggars are seen in crowds near places of Catholic worship, or pilgrimage, and many of them are distinguished for great piety and temperance. The English traveller is sometimes surprised at seeing a venerable figure, clothed in a hair-cloth shirt or tunic, repeating his orisons on the side of a road, with naked shivering limbs, and a beard which for years has been unconscious of a razor. Yet in Ireland, as in other places, there are pretended objects, and beggars who misapply the benefactions of the charitable. They receive no interruption from the police, except in Dublin, where a large close cart frequently returns to the workhouse full of discontented mendicants, who have an extraordinary aversion to restraint upon their freedom, or compulsion to attend the established worship, which is generally different from their own.
This class of the Irish are by no means unacquainted with the use of wit and waggery. The celebrated Dr O'Leary used to entertain his friends with some instances of their ingenuity. As he was riding to Maynooth College, a beggar accosted him for alms, declaring that he had not received a farthing for three days. The good Doctor gave him some silver, and being accosted on his return, in the evening, with a similar story, he upbraided the petitioner with his falsehood, telling him that he was Dr O'Leary. "Oh, long life to your reverence," said the beggar, "who would I tell my lies to, except my clargy?"
The parts in and near London mostly inhabited by the Irish poor, are Calmel Buildings, Orchard Street; Petty France, Westminster; Paddy's Land, near Plaistow; forty houses on the Rumford Road; and in the parish of St Giles in the Fields. This latter place, which is their principal residence, is called their colony, and is styled by them "The Holy Land;" in the centre of it there is a mass of building called "Rats' Castle."
In the time of Queen Elizabeth, St Giles's was the rendezvous of the beggars; for in "A Caveat, or Warning, for Common Cursitors, vulgarely called Vagabones, set forth by Thomas Harman, Esquire," 1567, it appears that Nicoles Genynges, the cranke, went over "the water into St George's fields," and not, according to the expectation of Mr Harman, who caused him to be dogged, toward Holborn, or St Giles's in the Fields.
It appears from a very early plan of St Giles's in the Fields, in the possession of Mr Parton, vestry clerk of that parish, that the lowest class of its inhabitants live on a portion of sixteen acres formerly called "Pittaunce Croft" (the allowance), which extended from a large mansion called Tottenhall, the fragments of which were of late supposed to have been parts of a palace of King John; they have been recently taken down. This house of Tottenhall was formerly inhabited by a Prebendary of St Paul's; it stood on the north side of that part of the road called "Tottenham Court," leading from the north end of Tottenham Court Road to Battle Bridge. The sixteen acres commenced from the above house, and went on southerly to St Giles's Church, and from thence easterly along the north side of the High Street to Red Lion Fields (now Red Lion Square).
The streets, lanes, alleys, and courts, forming the nest of houses inhabited by thieves, beggars, and the poor labouring Irish, are encompassed by a portion of the south side of Russell Street, formerly called Leonard Street, commencing from Tottenham Court Road, parts of the west sides of Charlotte and Plumtree Streets, and a part of the north and round the east of High Street to the first mentioned station of Russell Street. To the honour of Scotland, not one Scotch beggar is to be found in the dregs or lees of St Giles's. However wretched and depraved the inhabitants of this spot may now be, they certainly were worse fifty years ago, for it appears that there was then no honour among thieves; the sheets belonging to the lodging-houses, where a bed at that time was procured fortwopence, having the names of the owners painted on them in large characters of red lead, in order to prevent their being bought if stolen,—as for instance,
JOHN LEA,LAWRENCE LANE.STOP THIEF.
At the same period, the shovels, pokers, tongs, gridirons, and purl pots of the public-houses, particularly those of the Maidenhead Inn, in Dyott Street (now changed to George Street), and which was then kept by a man of the name of Jordan, were all chained to the fire-place. At this house the beggars, after a good day's maunding, would bleed the dragon, a large silver tankard so called, and which was to be filled with punch only. There is now a house, the sign of the Rose and Crown, in Church Lane, which was formerly called the Beggars' Opera; and there was another house so denominated, the sign of the Weaver's Arms, in Church Lane, Whitechapel.
The last cook-shop where the knives and forks were chained to the table, was on the south side of High Street. It was kept about forty years ago by a man of the name of Fussell.
Perhaps the only waggery in public-house customs now remaining, is in the tap-room of the Apple Tree, opposite to Cold Bath Fields Prison. There are a pair of handcuffs fastened to the wires as bell-pulls, and the orders given by some of the company, when they wish their friends to ring, are, to "agitate the conductor."
Most of the kitchens in High Street, from St Giles's Church to the entrance of Holborn, were sausage, sheep's head, roley poley pudding, pancake, and potatoe cellars. The last heroine of the frying-pan exhibited a short nose and shining red face, and was known by the appellation of "Little Fanny." She had fried and boiled for Mrs Markham, now living in the same house, thirty-three years. Her face had become so ardent by frequent wipings, that for many years it would not bear a touch.
It was the opinion of Sir Nathaniel Conant, when that able and active magistrate attended the Committee of the House of Commons, that extensive as mendicity has been of late, it is by no means to be compared with what it was thirty years ago.
It is very obvious that since the proceedings of the Committee for inquiring into the state of mendicity, the common beggars have decreased considerably in their numbers; and although they are still extremely numerous, it appears that where our wonderful Metropolis is molested with one beggar, there are twenty to be met with in almost every capital on the continent.
England, justly claiming the palm for the encouragement of every art and science, has ever been foremost in almsgiving, not only to her own people, but to those of almost every part of the globe. Nor can any other country boast such parochial poorhouses. The vast improvements of the streets and public edifices, great as they are, by no means keep pace with them either as to comfort or expense, of which Marylebone and Pancras are examples; and to the honour of these parishes, as well as that of St James, their concerns are regulated, examined, and audited by independent characters of the highest integrity.
Notwithstanding the great benefit of these asylums for the destitute, and the laws for the punishment of beggars, the sympathetic heart of the true Christian, a character unpolluted by the cant of crafty sectarists, is ever open to the tale of the distressed, from a respect for that excellent doctrine of St Paul, that
CHARITY NEVER FAILETH.
The following eulogium on this virtue, is extracted from Mr Hamilton's appeal in behalf of a religious community which had been deprived of its property during the French Revolution:—
"Charityis an emanation from the choicest attribute of the Deity; it is, as it were, a portion of the Divinity engrafted upon the human stock; it cancels a multitude of transgressions in the possessor, and gives him a foretaste of celestial joys. It whetted the pious Martin's sword, when he divided his garment with the beggar; and swelled the royal Alfred's bosom, while a pilgrim was the partner of his meal. It influenced the sorrowing widow to cast her mite into the treasury; and held a Saviour on the Cross, when he could have summoned Heaven to his rescue. Its practice was dictated by the law, its neglect has been censured by the prophets; and when the Lord of the vineyard sent his only Son, he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. Other virtues may have a limit here, but Charity extends beyond the grave. Faith may be lost in endless certainty, and Hope may perish in the fruition of its object, but Charity shall live for countless ages, for ever blessing and for ever blessed!"
THE END.
A Soap-eater, copied from a rare print of the time of Queen ElizabethA Tom of Bedlam copied from an Old Drawing of the time of Edw. 6th. in the possession of Fran. Douce Esq.Copied from a Drawing of the time of Henry VIIthin the possession of Francis Douce, Esq.
A Soap-eater, copied from a rare print of the time of Queen ElizabethA Tom of Bedlam copied from an Old Drawing of the time of Edw. 6th. in the possession of Fran. Douce Esq.Copied from a Drawing of the time of Henry VIIthin the possession of Francis Douce, Esq.
A Soap-eater, copied from a rare print of the time of Queen Elizabeth
A Tom of Bedlam copied from an Old Drawing of the time of Edw. 6th. in the possession of Fran. Douce Esq.
Copied from a Drawing of the time of Henry VIIthin the possession of Francis Douce, Esq.
PLATE XXXI.Beggars leaving town for their workhouse.
PLATE XXXI.Beggars leaving town for their workhouse.
PLATE XXXI.
Beggars leaving town for their workhouse.